It’s always a hard question to answer when people ask me about how I lost my own thirty pounds of “fluff.” For so many of us, we’re looking for that one size fits all “solve” - the “oh, I just ate grapefruit,” or “I started taking this awesome supplement.” I always wish I had “the magic pill” to just hand out, but the honest to goodness truth is I just committed.

And honestly, I know how annoying that sounds.

Weight loss is hard until it’s not hard. And I say that because truthfully, deep down inside we can all admit that we know what it takes to lose weight. Barring any health issues (like thyroid issues, etc…), weight loss comes down to what you are feeding yourself and how much you are moving. If you put the good stuff in, in the right amounts, and you move often, your body is going to lose weight.

For years I yo-yo’ed between a size 6 and a size 14. I’d have three weeks of “good” and then weekends that devolved into weeks of bad. Any progress I made was literally eaten away. And I did that - for years - until I finally (and fully and completely) decided I’m not going to do that anymore. Sure, I had said that countless times before, but I was just soooo over feeling and looking the way I did.

In the past, I had done Weight Watchers and been successful, so I knew writing stuff down would be important. There’s just something about having to “fess up” about what you’re eating that keeps you in check. Knowing that, I downloaded the MyFitnessPal app. While the app will give you a calorie number to aim for (based off of your height and weight), I suggest you get an InBody Assessment that can give you an accurate number based on your body composition. You can do it at the gym! It’s easy! You just stand on something for like 3 minutes. Once you have that calorie goal number, make sure you track everything. The app makes it so easy - you can even scan the barcodes!!

Track Your Workouts

In addition to food, I suggest tracking the calories you burn during your workouts with a heart-rate monitor. The great thing about heart-rate monitors is that most of them can show you what level you are working in during your workouts. It’s a great way to check in with how hard you might be working. And actually - a lot of the time (or rather, most of the time) I see that I work the hardest when I’m lifting weights. Woohoo #girlswholift!

You might also want to consider wearing a pedometer - or something that tracks your daily steps. I actually burst through some of my plateaus by just making sure that I was getting in my 10,000 steps. It’s a great way to remind you to get moving!

For me, I found that keeping myself accountable was the only way I was going to be able to keep myself honest. As coaches, we can make sure you’re doing the work in the gym, but we can’t be there when you’re sitting in the drive-through line at McDonald's or standing in that freezer aisle at Trader Joe’s (that’s my downfall). In so many ways you have to be your own coach or ref when you’re out in the grocery/restaurant/real-life field. Finding a way to make yourself and keep yourself accountable (over the months and maybe years it takes to lost the weight) is the first step in winning the weightloss game!

As I dove into a giant coffee-cake-pastry-piece-of-heaven, the first thought that occurred to me (besides the holy $%&* this is good!) was “I deserve this.”

“I deserve this.”

It’s a phrase that we utter a lot when we’re working really hard on our #healthgoals. When you’re killing yourself in the gym and making all the “right decisions,” when it comes to choosing what goes in your mouth, it’s not uncommon (nor bad) to think that you deserve _____. But it’s important to choose that “blank” carefully.

For the majority of us, it comes down to this equation:

Being good all week = I get to treat myself this weekend.

That “treat” comes in the form of a glass (x4) of wine, a cocktail (x5), a piece (+ a few nibbles) of cake, or 1 (x a bag) of potato chips. Or, okay, i'll give you the benefit of the doubt, maybe you're in a good habit and you reward all your good eating habits with good foods!

Uh… okay, so I’m about to get real here.

After a great workout, do you reward yourself with a cigarette?

You don’t - right? (If so, maybe we should talk a little about that).

So why would you want to reward all your good eating habits with something that will derail all those efforts and make you feel guilty? Do you really want to reward yourself with guilt? No!

I’m not saying you shouldn’t celebrate your wins. Believe me, I run on “treats” and will always say you have to treat yourself. But don’t “treat” yourself the way you would “treat” your dog - with food. Instead, I suggest you treat yourself with these some of these options:

A relaxing bath

A massage

A mani/pedi

A fresh new ‘do

New workout clothes

A new workout experience - like trying a yoga or rock-climbing class

A healthy cookbook

A session of Netflix and Chill

Aromatherapy oils

A trip to the movie theater (minus the popcorn)

A nap

Let’s reward our efforts with more health - and healthy options that will promote your health even further - because hey, you DO deserve it!